Cell Phones, Sculpture, and Jennifer Bishop at the BMA

A few days ago, I grabbed some pasta salad and a copy of The Urbanite, the "Crime and Violence" issue, at Eddie's and lunched in the BMA's sculpture garden. Reading Mike Anft's excellent piece on the robbery/beating of Zachary Sowers, I noticed the evocative portraits accompanying the article. They were shot by Jennifer Bishop, whose work I'd just admired inside the museum (as part of Looking Now, a digital photography project). And last month, I came across an exhibit of some of Bishop's best work (Baltimore and Beyond) at Belvedere Square's Daedulus book shop.

It reminded me of a time in the early 1990s when I was a staff writer at City Paper. While working on a story that took me to Druid Hill and Dolphin Street (near Union Baptist), I met a guy who exclaimed, "You work at City Paper?! Do you know Jennifer Bishop?" Although she did a ton of work for the paper, including a photo for page three of every issue, I hardly knew her, and he was obviously disappointed. "I've been cutting her pictures out of the paper and pasting them into albums for years," he said. "Those pictures talk to me—about the city and its people." It's true. The Daedulus show is up until the end of May.

After finishing my pasta, I revisited work by Henry Moore, Alexander Calder, and Ellsworth Kelly. For the first time, I took the cell phone tour (443-573-1822) and listened as BMA Director Doreen Bolger and others guided me around the garden. Hearing artist Mark Di Suvero discuss the inspiration behind Sister Lu (see above), one of my favorite pieces, was a highlight.